Paradigm Reference ADP-70 Surround Speakers

Paradigm Reference ADP-70 Surround Speakers 

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-7 of 7  
[Dec 05, 2002]
Rob Ciszak
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Size Bi-polar Design Excellent for the price

Weakness:

Driver size. Poor timbre match to Monitor series.

Good speaker for small cinema series fronts. Timbre does not match the Monitor series. Driver is too small to be a "full size" speaker and the high pass filter on my receiver has a minimum setting of 100 Hz - leaving a frequency gap from the rears (such as if a jet fly's from back to front). I recently upgraded them to ADP-170 - A much better speaker!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

ADP-170v.3 CC-170v.3 Monitor 3v.3 Monitor 7v.3

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Mar 31, 2002]
erick420
AudioPhile

Strength:

Small, attrative, great sound!

Weakness:

Speakers look like some kind of car speaker. No bass.

These sound really good with my HT setup. I think they could have used separate tweeters like the 170''s but they still sound good. They are very clear but lack lower sounds.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Dec 07, 2001]
Chris Sanders
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Small, great diffusion

Weakness:

Not so accurate in the higher frequencies, Nothing on the lower frequencies.

I needed a surround that was:
1. Cheap
2. Small
3. Matched my Atoms and CC-170

If I didn't have the size restraignt I would have gone with the ADP-170 instead, it is a far supirior speaker.

The good things:
It is very small and can go just about anywhere. I have mine mounted 2 inches from the cealing due to a window right where the speaker SHOULD go, and they do a great job of diffusing the sound down to where it sounds as if it is coming from beheind or beside you.

The bad things:
The tweeter for this speaker is NOT made by Paradigm and therefore does NOT exactly match my atoms and CC-170. But it is pretty close. Also.. I do not like the coaxual design.. There is no reason for it.. There is plenty of room on the side of the box to mount the tweet high and the mid low. They will NOT fill even a small room. The sound field for these if mounted on the back wall is only extends about 5 feet from the back wall.. Otherwise the center and mains completely overpower them.

Overall:
They are the best thing I can fit into my living room. They are sufficently accurate and do what they are supposed to do. I am satisfied with their performance.. but I really wish I had the room for the ADP-170s.

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Dec 18, 1999]
Gary Ostrander
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

It produces very effective "surround" sound for a Dolby Pro-Logic system. It's very difficult to tell where the sound is coming from. Low frequencies are reproduced bipolar(in phase)and higher frequencies are produced dipolar(out of phase). This is all done automatically by the electronics inside the speaker box. It's a good match for Paradigm's CC-70 for the center speaker and their Micro for the front left and right speakers.

Weakness:

This speaker is too small for matching to most of Paradigm's other speakers. Also, even though Paradigm says all of their speakers are timbre matched, they're not really. The midrange driver is a composite as are the midrange drivers for their Micro and their CC-70. The rest of their midrange drivers are poly or mica & poly. The tweeter is not the Ceramic Metal Composite or the Pure Metal tweeters used in most of their speakers either.

When I connected these speakers up with the rest of my system, it couldn't hold its own. It didn't put out enough sound. Also, since I listen to music on this system and watch movies from DVD's playing in Dolby Digital, I really don't care for the vague sound that so-called bipolar and dipolar speakers put out. After using the ADP-70's for one week, I replaced them with Paradigm Titans for the rear left and right speakers. These sound a lot better and even cost less! They put out a lot more sound and produce a lot deeper sound. This is much better for music and for the full spectrum of sound offered with Dolby Digital DVD's.

There are better choices for less money and you can still get them from Paradigm. I got the ADP-70's for $200 and traded them in for Titan's which I got for only $180. I love the rest of my Paradigm speakers which I was able to get for very reasonable prices when my dealer had a special sale on "blems".

Similar Products Used:

Front Left & Right - Paradigm Phantoms
Front Center - Paradigm CC-170
SubWoofer - PS1000
Onkyo DVD & Receiver - DR 90

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
1
[Mar 23, 2001]
Rob
Audio Enthusiast

Weakness:

None so far

Just an overall incredible speaker, always used a direct radiating speaker in the rear and was never aware of what I was missing. Paradigm has done it again with such an incredible little speaker, at such an incredible little price.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 10, 2000]
Tony
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Small, light weight

Weakness:

Not good for small room

As for the ADP-70's specifically, they are very impressive. I have a small room and they seem to fill it just enough to not take away from the main speakers. I was a concerned about mounting on the drywall but the speaker was light enough that I did not need to mount at the stud location. the speakers placement is 6.5 ft above floor and mount on righ and left rear side of the room, The speaker is dipole design that give the listionner the sound all over the room. This is a excelent surrond speaker for small HT set up.
Equipment:
Yamaha DSP-A1 (Receiver)
Pioneer DV-525(DVD Player)
Paradigm Monitor 9
Paradigm CC-350
Paradigm ADP-70

Similar Products Used:

ADP-170

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 24, 2000]
Vince Chan
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Clear crisp sound, wide dispersion. Great for small to medium sized rooms. Removeable grilles.

Weakness:

Might not be good for large rooms. Lacks strong bass (no problem if you use the sub to carry the bass)

I bought these speakers to complete my home theater setup. They were last as I have had no previous exposure to dipoles before and was skeptical if they could hold up against direct radiating speakers when it came to panning effects. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that while these surrounds did fill my HT with sound they were directional when they needed to be under DD5.1 and DTS.
The ADP-70's are small and fairly lightweight and can be mounted even on wood panelling (without a stud behind).
The speakers themselves gave a clear and crisp sound and complement my CC-130, Titans and PDR10 sub quite well.


OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
Showing 1-7 of 7  

(C) Copyright 1996-2018. All Rights Reserved.

audioreview.com and the ConsumerReview Network are business units of Invenda Corporation

Other Web Sites in the ConsumerReview Network:

mtbr.com | roadbikereview.com | carreview.com | photographyreview.com | audioreview.com